So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley.
Parallel translations
- WEB So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley.
- KJV So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
- BSB So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.
- NASB So I purchased her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and a homer and a lethech of barley.
- NLT So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Hosea buys the woman back at a modest price of silver and barley. His redemption of her enacts God's redemption of Israel.
Overview
The price Hosea pays, partly in silver and partly in grain, suggests she had fallen into a state of bondage from which she needed to be purchased. By paying to reclaim his own wife, Hosea pictures the costly love that buys back what has strayed. This redemption foreshadows the greater redemption in Christ, who purchased His people at the price of His own blood to make them His own.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Gen 34:12Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.”
- Ezek 45:11The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain one tenth of a homer, and the ephah one tenth of a homer: its measure shall be after the homer.
- Lev 27:16“‘If a man dedicates to Yahweh part of the field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it. The sowing of a homer of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.
- 1 Sam 18:25Saul said, “Tell David, ‘The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies.’” Now Saul thought he would make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
- Gen 31:41These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
- Isa 5:10For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.”
- Exod 22:17If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.
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Christ at the center
God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.
How Hosea 3:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.